Sailing the rough seas is in Pat’s blood
VETERAN sailor Patricia ‘Pat’ Evans (77) and Andrew ‘Plastic’ Plasket are preparing to head off on their three-week voyage to Saldanha Bay aboard Pat’s vessel Shé, a Wharram catamaran.
This vessel is known specifically for being very small, which is why Pat has aptly nicknamed it her ‘geriatric jungle gym’, as it requires a particular level of skill to navigate in and around it.
Pat (77) is no stranger to the sailing world which means that, while the particular section of coastline Andrew and she are sailing is known for its rough seas, it will not be much of an arduous task.
On many occasions, Pat has faced exceptionally harsh conditions.
‘On my first voyage around the world with my father, I experienced a horrific cyclone through which we luckily managed to sail,’ she said.
When Pat first acquired Shé and set off on her maiden voyage to Mozambique in 2009, she had to place a distress call to Richards Bay NSRI as she began to face wind speeds of 60-70 knots and a wave so powerful that it caused Shé to pull the NSRI vessel 50m back while it was attempting to tow her at full throttle.
‘I guess you could say sailing is in my blood as my father commissioned the first South African-built yacht to end up sailing around the world.’
‘Once his vessel was finished, when I was just about to finish school, it was difficult for my mother to get me to go home and study,’ she says with a grin.
Pat will luckily be in very good hands on her upcoming voyage as Andrew Plasket, a Zululand local, is as seasoned a ‘yachtie’ as they come.
Andrew and Pat originally met at the Zululand Yacht Club in 2009 over their love for the Wharram catamaran, and she felt he was the right man for the job.
Andrew has sailed this same trip 43 times, with 33 of those trips following the same route that they will take for this upcoming voyage, and the other 10 going the other way.
Pat is using this voyage as a means to travel to the Cape to visit her family as she feels it is time to spend more time with them.
She would also like to commend Kirsten Schroeder and the Zululand Yacht Club as a whole, as they are exceptionally accommodating towards her during her stay.